Issue 037

May 2008

BY James Barrraclough

In terms of preparation for competition, it is vitally important for fighters to feel ready and have faith in their preparation. I discussed, way back in the first series of articles I wrote for Fighters Only in 2006, the importance of preparing yourself fully in all of the four corners of sport performance. 

Those are: 

• PHYSICAL (e.g. conditioning, nutrition)

• TECHNICAL (practice and proficiency with the various techniques required for fighting)

• TACTICAL (how you will fight – e.g. take it to the floor or try and keep your opponent standing)

and of course…

• PSYCHOLOGICAL (working on concentration, confidence, reducing anxiety, and so on)

The first three should be worked out with your coach, but also with your input where appropriate. It’s important to have a say in your preparation, but your coach should be able to work with you and motivate you towards achieving your ‘outcome’ goal of winning your fight.

The fourth area is where someone like myself would come in. Although the best coaches are a lot like sport psychologists in certain ways (such as knowing how best to motivate individual athletes), it can do no harm to consult others for more in-depth knowledge and have someone you can talk to confidentially (and someone who is more objective) about anything from being nervous before fights to things of a more personal nature. 

Thorough preparation is of paramount importance, and it is important to tailor your preparation around an upcoming bout according to your individual preferences – after all, everyone is different and what may work for one fighter may be detrimental to another. It’s good to work out your own personal ‘recipe’ of routines, rituals, superstitions and mental exercises, and amend them wherever necessary if they do not work. 

A good way to do this is by making a pre-competition plan, which as the name suggests is a plan of what you will do in the run-up to a fight. This is a weekly plan that shows what you need to do everyday, in the four areas listed above, to be ready. For example, the physical bit may be to work on a certain attribute in a conditioning session (i.e. training to increase your crushing strength or explosiveness). The technical side may be to work on something that needs improving in your game or linked to the tactical side of things – for instance working on takedowns if you are planning to use this strategy in your next fight (maybe against a stand-up fighter). 

The psychological side will be determined by a session or two with a sport psychologist, who can also assist in developing that pre-competition plan. Included within the plan can also be any areas for improvement and any mental exercises (known as interventions) that the sport psychologist has highlighted. For example, it may include SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-based) goals that have been set regarding of long-term (your ultimate career goal), medium-term (what can be achieved in a fight), and short-term goals (the

small steps that make up the bigger picture, such as individual training sessions). 

It’s your short-term goals that you should focus on during the fight – remember it’s the journey and not the destination that counts. If you set an ultimate goal of being a world champion and a medium-term goal of winning all your fights in a year, then it is of no use to focus on these ‘outcome’ goals as you won’t be attending to the job in hand and will get distracted. You need to focus on all the small things (short-term ‘process’ goals) that you do every second in the cage, and the other goals will take care

of themselves.

Within that plan would almost definitely be the use of imagery (also known as visualisation) which can have a number of

uses including: practicing tactics for your next fight, again

linked to your SMART goals; working on areas of your technique that may need attention; and very importantly, recalling yourself in your previous best performances from past fights or even training sessions. 

Visualisation can do wonders for concentration and confidence pre-fight, and if you have good concentration and high confidence it should follow that you should be composed in the cage. It is good to run through things that may not go quite according to plan in order that you are prepared for any eventuality, but it is also very important that you see yourself overcoming these difficulties and your visualisation sessions have a positive outcome. You can take the best bits from any training session or fight and add them to your own personal ‘imagery library’. Music can also put you in a similar emotional state, as long as its something you feel is appropriate.

When preparing for fights you also need to practice all the sport psychology exercises given to you in everyday situations (you can also add this to your imagery practice. For example, if you see yourself in a sticky situation in the cage, you need to visualise using the relevant techniques to get out of it, but also what mental tools you will use, such as self-talk or a relaxation technique. If you are in a situation at home, at work or in the street that you cannot control – like someone cutting you up in a car or bumping into you – you can use self-talk or a relaxation technique to prevent you from losing your temper. You can practice imagery pretty much anywhere: when you’re trying to

get to sleep; when you’re bored at work / college / home; even on the toilet! The more you practice the better you get at it, and consequently your performance will improve in training and fights.

Another thing that you can practice in the gym or in your head is your walk out to the cage. What music will be playing, and how will you feel? What positive actions and thoughts can you have that will make you feel more focused and confident? How long will it take? How will you react to your opponent? What will you need to do between rounds to maintain or regain your focus? All these questions can be answered by talking to a sport psychologist and analysing what has worked well in the past.

Simulation training is an excellent way of bringing all the

above together. In other words, having a practice fight in training before the actual event. It needs to be as realistic as possible so that the fighter can practice all the sport psychology exercises

in as genuine a situation as possible. It also gives the coach a great opportunity to iron out any technical issues. This can be used as a test every couple of weeks to see what progress has been made with weekly goals, and is similar to revising for an exam. Simulation training can make a huge difference. It does need to take into account the safety of the two fighters involved, so some protection or restrictions may need to be applied as the last thing anyone wants before a fight is an injury. It’s probably

best not to do this too close to a competition. It is also very important for the competing fighter’s confidence that they get success out of this exercise, so don’t go against someone who will thoroughly beat you without allowing you opportunity to learn from the experience. 

All of the above are very general guidelines. The best way to

get the maximum out of your preparation is to consult with a sport psychologist who can guide you on getting the most out of your training and teach you fantastic habits to develop for the rest of your MMA career.